A direct selling/distribution from producer to buyer

The cultivation

The cultivation of vegetables is directly carried out by our farm which follows all the phases: from transplanting to harvest, a skilled staff is responsible for effectuating all necessary treatings in order to have a healthy and perfect product.

Our farm has adopted a method of integrated agricolture to guarantee a product without phytosanitary products residuals; each field is associated with a lot so that all treatings are registered, moreover some multiresidual analysis are effected before the harvest in order to ensure the product integrity.

The harvest

The harvest is an important phase, because it improves the value of the labour linked to cultivation.

The harvest is effected by a skilled staff that gathers vegetables manually and then stores them in cases not exceeding 20 kilos in order that the product is not da maged; the staff also makes a first selection in field of those products which are not appropriate, afterwards the gathered product is immediately taken on freight to the factory where it is stocked into freeze rooms.
The production of half-finished goods and the desiccation by the sun

Raw materials are immediately stocked for a few hours into freeze rooms at 5 degrees c. and soon after they are laboured. “San Marzano” tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are our buttonholes, the production begins with the manual selection of the not appropriate product, then the phase of washing takes place and finally goods are ready to be cut.

This procedure is still carried out manually by a specialized feminine staff. Soon after the cutting phase there is a very important phase, that is the product salting. The salting determines the good outcome of desiccation, which is effected personally by a high specialized staff.

The networks drying have a fundamental role: they are situated 1 metre above the ground to guarantee a continuous airing to the product, thanks to ventilation and a warm sun, both characteristics of the land of Salento, we can have a product rich in exceptional organoleptic qualities which is appreciated by a lot of firms and consumers. Like tomatoes, also peppers, eggplants and summer squashes are laboured by following the same process of the natural drainage by the sun.

The packaging

After the phase of drainage, the whole product (ready for the selling) is stocked into freeze rooms at 5 degrees c.

There are two kinds of packaging: the first consists of commercializing towards factories, that is product is utterly manually analysed in order to ensure its conformity to the standard and put into clothes from 5 to 10 kilos. The final phase concerns the dispatch of product on raised platforms inside of freeze rooms at 5 degrees, in order to not alter its quality.

The second is carried out directly in our factory, where the product is transformed into conserves which are handmade harboured so as to confer a special and unmistakable taste on them. The phases of production are monitored by an internal controller who follows all the production passages; the rooms where this process takes place have been recently built and they have received the approval of all sanitary permissions. Also a specific plan (concerning the self control in the catering sector), a flow diagram, a program linked to the management of the production process are all followed by an alimentary technologist.